In Loving Memory of Lewis Lawrence Smith - Asesor y colaborador de APEV y buen amigo de Puerto Rico.

LEWIS L. SMITH: EARLY PROPONENT OF ALTERNATIVE ENERGY

Lewis Lawrence Smith, 76, an economist who created and promoted alternative energy programs and policies long before they became widely accepted, died peacefully September 26 at his summer home in Freeport, Maine. He
did most of his work – including early biomass energy projects– in Puerto Rico
where he lived with his wife Trinita Muñiz Burgos, Together they raised four
children as well as two nephews and one niece after their parents had
died.

Smith was director of the Office of Energy for the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico (now the Energy Affairs Administration] between 1986 and 1990.
During his tenure he supervised the construction and start-up of what was then
the largest grid-supply photovoltaic generating unit in Latin America. He also
helped to supervise field tests using sugar cane for energy. From 2002 to 2006
he was a member of the governor's Advisory Committee on Energy.

Before becoming director of energy, Smith served as a consulting economist to the
Center for Energy & Environmental Research at the University of Puerto Rico,
the Soil Conservation Service and the State Sugar Council of the Dominican
Republic. He also served as director of the Office of Economic Research
(Fomento) during the 1970s. From 1966 to 1971 he was an economist for the
Commonwealth Oil Refining Company in Puerto Rico. Between 1961 and 1966 he was
financial and economic assistant to the assistant executive director of the
Puerto Rico Water Resources Authority.

Following his government work, Smith returned to consult as an economist with an expertise in alternative
energy, including advising the creation of two major biomass projects based on
the conversion of elephant grass, sugar cane residue among other
sources.

Smith was born in Philadelphia, Pa. in 1933, the son of Lawrence M.C. and Eleanor Houston Smith. He spent his childhood in Washington DC, where
his father was an official of the Roosevelt administration. He attended Jackson
Elementary School, Gordon Junior High, and St. Albans. In 1948, when his parents
returned to Philadelphia, Smith attended Germantown Friends School, where he
graduated in 1950.

He graduated from Harvard University magna cum laude and went on to the Harvard Business School where he got his MBA. He served as an
enlisted member of the Air Force from 1954 to 1956. From 1959 to 1961 Smith
worked for the Agency for International Development in Paraguay.

Smith belonged to a vigorous, alternative segment of the economist community often
ignored by the media. Just two days before he died he wrote the widow of one of
his favorite high school teachers describing him as "constantly questioning,
stimulating or, as my father would say, 'poking' other people intellectually."
The description applied to Smith as well.

In 2006, Smith addressed a conference at Harvard University at which he analyzed the state of modern
economics:
"Today economics is in a state of turmoil. On one hand, neoclassical economics lacks both humanity and realism. On the other, its
supporters retain most of the "seats of power" in economics and defend them
fiercely. Nevertheless, its credibility has been badly damaged by decades of
on-the-job disasters and by trenchant criticisms from dissident economists. So
today our discipline urgently needs a new paradigm, but conceptually and
psychologically, it is not ready. New approaches abound, but no one approach has
gained widespread support."

Smith is survived by his wife, Trinita Muñiz Burgos and four children – Clemson Lewis Smith Muñiz, Stanley Houston Smith
Muñiz, Sarita Eleanor Smith Hanley and Rebecca Smith Albert– as well as 10
grandchildren and two surviving legal dependents, Eduardo Enrique Pellot Muñiz
and Norma Rita Pellot Muñiz.

Smith is also survived by five siblings: Eleanor Kenner Morris, Samuel H. Smith, G.G. Meredith S.S. Smith, Sarah L.O.
Smith, and Mary Minor Smith.